Flash Gordon Left Me The Keys

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) -- American officials are trying to more quickly sort out which terrorist suspects held in a high-security Cuban facility can be set free, officials said Tuesday.

But the planned release of some prisoners this week doesn't necessarily mean officials are getting closer to significantly reducing the prisoner population at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Defense officials said Tuesday that as roughly a dozen inmates are released, more than twice that number of new ones are to be transferred into the facility. It's another illustration that the global war on terror is a long-term undertaking.

Officials on Monday gave conflicting figures on the planned release from Guantanamo Bay - where many have been held since its opening 16 months ago and all are held without charges or access to lawyers.

On Tuesday, officials clarified that the number will be moving up and down in the coming days.

In addition to the dozen expected to leave the facility, some 30 more are to be brought in - making a net gain of about 20 and bringing the prison population to some 680, two Defense Department officials said on condition of anonymity.

They said the new detainees were captured in the continuing war against al-Qaida in Afghanistan, as were many of the suspects already there.

But while the search for terrorists continues, officials of several government agencies have agreed to speed the processing of long-held suspects, two officials said.

Secretary of State Colin Powell in mid-April wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that gives a glimpse into administration discussions of the problem.

In what officials have said was a strongly worded letter, Powell cited complaints from allies in his argument that the indefinite holding of foreign citizens undermines efforts to win international cooperation in the war on terror.

Officials said the letter did not prompt the upcoming release, but that officials of several government agencies have been talking about the problem and agreed in recent weeks to try to expedite some releases.

Some 660 prisoners from 42 countries are held, though officials refuse to identify them or their countries or say exactly how many there are.

It was unclear how many of those leaving Guantanamo will be set free and how many will simply be transferred back to their own countries for further detention or charges.

Officials have long said that some could be released to their countries if it were certain their governments would deal with them properly. Talks have been under way with various countries, but no results have been announced.

Officials said they didn't know the home countries of the prisoners to be released. But countries that have said publicly they want their citizens home include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Britain and Pakistan.

Human rights groups were not satisfied.

"All of the prisoners held at Guantanamo should be charged or released," said Vienna Colucci, international justice specialist with Amnesty International USA.

"Those no longer detained by the United States should under no circumstances be forcibly returned to countries where they would be at risk of unfair trial, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," Colucci said in a statement Monday.

Since the prison was opened, only 23 people are known to have been released.

Rumsfeld said Sunday that the process for releasing prisoners is complicated and slow. They must be questioned by several government agencies, including the FBI, the Justice Department, the State Department, the Pentagon, the CIA and U.S. immigration services, he said.

"That's not an excuse we'd accept when talking about processing a driver's license application. And we're talking about depriving people of their liberty," said Amnesty spokesman Alistair Hodgett. "It's hard to see why it should take 500 days to determine whether an individual should be charged with a crime or set free."

The defense secretary said he, too, would like to see the process move faster.

Rumsfeld has said over the past year that the first priority was to interrogate the prisoners for information on future terrorist activities or terror networks. He said they could be released if it were determined there would be no charges against them, they posed no threat and they had no more useful intelligence to offer.

Pentagon officials said Friday that they had finished writing rules for trying terrorist suspects in military tribunals.

Two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in Washington and New York, President Bush authorized establishment of tribunals to try foreign suspects in the counterterror war.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said they have some suspects in mind who might be candidates. They offered no number of planned trials, nor dates they might start and said no final decisions have been made.

LANGLEY, VA—In an alarming report released Monday by the Central Intelligence Agency, Syria may be harboring upwards of 15 million known Arabs within its borders.

"Reliable intelligence collected by our agency indicates that Syria has conspired to lend physical and economic support to a massive number of people belonging to this group," CIA director George J. Tenet said. "The shocking truth is, there are nearly as many Arabs in Syria as there are people in New York and Los Angeles combined. In fact, Syrians openly refer to their nation as the Syrian Arab Republic, despite knowing full well America's opinion on these matters."

Explaining the CIA's methods of gathering data on the rogue ethnicity's presence in Syria, Tenet said it relied on a combination of satellite imagery, computer-system infiltration, reports from Syrian covert operatives, intercepted radio and television transmissions, and The World Almanac And Book Of Facts 2003.

"It's practically an open secret these days," Tenet said. "Syrian television brazenly shows Arabs in military uniforms carrying guns, or delivering political speeches to other members of the group. Walk into any house of worship in the country, and you'll see people reading the Koran and bowing their heads in prayer toward Mecca. It's almost like they're daring the United States to get involved."

"Disturbingly, more than 90 percent of these Arabs have been linked to the practice of 'Islam'—a defiantly non-Western system of faith whose core principles are embraced by none other than Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein," Tenet added. "If this is true, and we do consider this information to be correct in all particulars, then this is troubling at best."

President Bush, Tenet said, has been aware of Syria's ties to known Arab political and religious figures since the earliest planning stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Tenet assured reporters that all possible diplomatic avenues of resolving the situation were being aggressively pursued.

Above: In a chilling scene, thousands of Arabs bow toward Mecca in praise of Allah.
"We have informed [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad of the presence of Arabs in his country and have offered any aid necessary to bring this situation under control," Tenet said. "I am confident that a resolution to this crisis can be achieved without resorting to military action."

This is not the first time Syria has been linked to Arabs. Israel found the Golan Heights heavily populated by Arabs when it annexed the region from Syria during 1967's Arab-Israeli War. Arabs have historically held many influential posts in the Syrian government, and the CIA claims to have data indicating that wealthy Arab businessmen control the greater part of Syria's economy.

The CIA report prompted concern from many Americans.

"I'm not surprised," said Wayne Early, an Atlanta-area mortgage broker. "I suspect they're all over that part of the world. First, the government linked them to Sept. 11, then Afghanistan, and then Iraq. It makes you wonder who's next."

"The more I learn about Arabs, the less I like them," said Carol Schecter of Norfolk, VA. "Beirut, Teheran, Baghdad... everyplace there's trouble, they're there, and now we've found them in Syria. I just hope they don't hurt the regular Syrians."

Tenet assured citizens that he is committed to resolving the crisis.

"We don't want to cause any undue panic, but now that the Arabs are there, we're going to have to deal with them," Tenet said. "Unfortunately, they're not just going to go away by themselves."